It's A Dude's World

Did I mention that I finally got an iPod Touch? I caved and got a refurbished one off of Woot.com. I've bought other refurbished items including a GPS that is almost four years and that I sometimes wish would malfunction so that I can justify getting a newer model with lifetime updates but I digressed...

I've been enjoying the iPod and now I understand why that woman fell into a water fountain while texting.

I've purchased two books so far. The first one was Stretch. I made sure that it wasn't at the library before I purchased it for the steep price of $.99 cents. Let's just say that I can be frugal at times or that I don't want to fall into the habit of buying things impulsively just because it's convenient.

I read Stretch little by little. I read it a lot and, fittingly, while I waited for yoga classes to start. I enjoyed just about every moment of this book and it was definitely laugh out loud funny.

Dude, needless to say and as suggested by the title, becomes completely immersed in yoga but is apprehensive when he starts off and especially when he's the only guy in the class that he attends.

As I sat there in my coffee-stained white T-shirt and my paint-spattered cotton shorts with the "native" Guatemalan pattern embroidered across the hem, I felt self-conscious, hairy, and overly large, an ogre invited to a debutante ball. (pg 55 of 914)

I so related to the feeling of being consumed by an activity.

Yoga had steamrolled my family life, and infiltrated my reading list. I sometimes watched yoga DVDs, instead of movies at night. Sometimes, it felt as though I had space for little else in my brain. Now it was about to take over my professional life as well. (pg 412-13)

Even though Pollack's wife refers to herself as a "yoga widow," she benefits from her husband's practice:

Regina started calling me a "stinky yoga hippie," and I couldn't really argue, especially because she meant it as a compliment. I was nicer and calmer and more supportive than I'd been since she'd known me. Yoga made me feel better, and if I felt better, the family was happier. (162)

Pollack does a twenty four yogathon, goes to Thailand to study with a teacher, does seva at a studio in order to attend free classes, goes to a festival and ends up writing articles for Yoga Journal.

While this book did make me laugh a lot, this more serious passage is one of my favorites:

I felt hints of something big in the universe that I couldn't quite grasp; the edges of my personality were beginning to soften and ease into calm and humility...(192)

Speaking of serious, saw this video about people in China who work on Apple products. :(